banana + coffee caramel cream cheese roll cake!!

roll cakes totally out-kick their coverage.

If I have one North Star for my approach to pastry and baking, it’s this:

Dessert should be fun. Dessert should make you happy.

I don’t know who first decided to take a cake and roll it up in a cute little spiral, but I have a feeling we’d get along.

Roll cakes are kind of perfect. They deliver an equal cake-to-filling ratio in every forkful, are versatile, and of course, check the aforementioned boxes of fun and happiness-inducing. They’re low investment with big return–believe it or not, a roll cake can come together faster and with less effort than a layer cake. And, they dress to impress.

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I wanted to deep dive into the history of this cutie cake, but its origin story is hazy. Though commonly known as a Swiss roll, by all accounts, the Swiss had little, if anything, to do with it. It has many names, and many identities: the British have the Jelly Roll, the French the bûche de Noël. Japanese roll cakes lean towards lighter and more subtle flavors, with less sugar than a Swiss roll cake. And duh, we all know and love a good gas station HoHo!!

A cake by any other name would taste as sweet.

the ultimate snack-time delight!!

With so many pastries carrying such weighty tradition and with that, rules to follow, there’s a sweet sense of freedom to the Swiss-Jelly-HoHo roll cake. Call it what you want. Flavour it how you want. Use ice cream, or whipped cream, or jam, or a combination of all of the above.

I made this cake for no reason other than I thought it would be yummy. It’s a bit retro? Almost Banoffee-esque? It’s extra but also elegant and dare I say, refined?!

It’s definitely fun, and it will definitely make you happy.

Recipe follows below!

thanks for being here :)